Conversations with Anon

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This event will be held in English.

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Alice Oswald and Maria Stepanova, both former Fellows at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, will meet in conversation on the occasion of the publication of Alice Oswald’s new book, Rhapsody: A Manifesto, and Maria Stepanova’s The Disappearing Act, translated by Sasha Dugdale.

Alice Oswald lives in Devon and has worked as a gardener and poet. She has a particular interest in oral and anonymous poetry and has published three anthologies and seven poetry collections, including Dart, Memorial, and Falling Awake. Among her distinctions are the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. From 2019 to 2023, she was the Oxford Professor in Poetry.

Maria Stepanova (born in Moscow in 1972) is a poet, essayist and editor, the recipient of several Russian and international literary awards, including the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding (2023). Her poems have been translated into a number of languages, including English, German, French, Italian, and Swedish. Her documentary novel Pamiati pamiati (In Memory of Memory) came out in Russian in November 2017 and received the Russian Big Book Prize in December 2018. Since 2022 Stepanova is based in Berlin.